This mystery/thriller kicks off when two teenagers break into an old man's house in search of prescription drugs. They expect him to be asleep, an easy target, but Emmett has secrets he wants to keep hidden using any means necessary. The next day, when the teens don't show up for school, the local deputy, Ben Packard, begins his investigation. However, when most of the clues start coming up dry, Packard will have to delve into the deeper secrets of the small town in order to find them in time.
TW/CW: death of a loved one, death of a pet, drug use, kidnapping, homophobia
Based on the description and cover, I was expecting this to be similar to the movie Don't Breathe where it was primarily focused on the old man vs the teens in the house. However, this read much more like a typical police procedural with occasional chapters that followed the events in the house. I was really expecting the subject matter to be much more dark on page as well. We get characters talking about past events or threatening to take certain actions, but I never really got that really gritty, dark subject matter that I was expecting (based on the cover/title). That being said, this was still a really great read and a well-paced mystery. However, if someone was going into this expecting more of a thriller/horror vibe then they may be disappointed.
I really loved the characters, especially Packard. The reader is sort of just dropped into this town as the teens are breaking in and we don't get a whole lot of character info-dump on them or anyone else. Instead, Moehling does a great job of sprinkling in character details throughout the story and investigation. What could have been some pretty cliche characters - teens acting out, depressed deputy, weirdo who tortures girls in his basement - turned into a really great mix of personality details and backstory. I found Packard to be the most fleshed out of all the characters, which makes sense considering we are mostly following his investigation plot line in this story. I really enjoyed that Packard, while he does have some trauma from his past that he's trying to ignore/work through, he doesn't fall into the depressed deputy trope. He also doesn't go rogue and ignore procedure. He's good at his job and the people in this small town respect him pretty well. I'm not sure if this is only going to be a standalone novel, but I would love if this turned into a police procedural series following Packard.
As I mentioned previously, this read more like a standard police procedural with occasional chapters flashing to the events with the teens and Emmett. I think the dual storyline elements worked well, but I did find the chapters with Emmett to be lower tension than I was expecting. They eventually increased in tension toward the end and, looking back, I can see how Moehling was laying the breadcrumbs to build up to Emmett's climactic moment, but in the moment it really felt like the lowest stakes version of this type of story. For the majority of Emmett's plot line, it really felt like they were just sitting around waiting for Packard to find them. Thankfully, I was more interested in Packard's sections so I used these Emmett chapters as more of a little break. There were a few times where the two story lines crossed but in a way that only the reader knows about (the characters involved did not know about the other story line going on) which did increase the tension. I really enjoyed the way the two storylines came together in a really logical way. I was afraid maybe they would connect due to being lucky or some sort of coincidence but instead a lot of the little pieces we've been following come together in the end.
The investigation elements were really well done and I enjoyed how much the town is included in the investigation. We really get a good sense of this small town through the investigation path and there was such a good mix of local details as well as investigation threads for Packard to follow. Again, I think this would be really great groundwork for the first book in a series based in this small town. I think a lot of small town mysteries fall into a cutesy almost cozy-mystery vibes which isn't always what I'm looking for. In this case, Moehling was able to capture the feeling of a small town without veering into that overly cutesy territory. We have a really interesting cast of characters that felt like genuinely real people and not caricatures. The investigation has Packard visiting a number of different locations in town such as the local high school, the diner, and a few different homes at different areas of town. Since the investigation is more of a missing persons case, we don't really get a whole lot of technical forensic stuff to wade through in the narrative. Instead, the investigation mostly focuses on trying to find people who knew what the teens were up to the night they disappeared. We do get a little bit of technical investigation when it comes to tracking cell phones and such but not as much as a typical murder-investigation police procedural.
Overall, this wasn't nearly as dark of a story as I was expecting based on the title, cover, and description but I still ended up enjoying this. Great characters and setting as well as an intriguing investigation. I hope this becomes a series and I'd be interested in reading more from Moehling in the future.
Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC
Expected publication date is June 14, 2022
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